Beijing United Family Hospital

Event Details

THE RESCUE - A Live Film-Concerto is a multi-media experience combining documentary film with a live musical performance of its soundtrack - to recount for audiences of all ages - the never-told story of Righteous Among the Nations Colonel José Arturo Castellanos, who worked with his Jewish friend to save thousands of Jewish lives during the holocaust. This ground-breaking concept was developed by filmmakers Alvaro and Boris Castellanos - grandsons of José Arturo Castellanos - as an emotionally engaging and uplifting way to tell the story of their grandfather and as an effective medium for holocaust education and remembrance.

Alvaro and his brother Boris Castellanos, have produced a documentary 1-hour film entitled "The Rescue - A Live Film Concerto". The documentary tells the story of their grandfather's rescue mission, which...is a very unique story that has no other example" among other WWII rescues - according to Dr. Mordecai Paldiel of the Raoul Wallenberg Foundation and former head of Yad Vashem's Righteous department.

Col. José Arturo Castellanos joined forces with his Jewish friend George Mandel-Mantello and using his position as Salvadoran Consul General in Hamburg and later Geneva during WWII, created and distributed more than 13,000 Salvadoran citizenship papers (each issued to an entire family), that helped save the lives of thousands of European Jews during the Holocaust. The film features the stories of Holocaust survivors who were saved by their grandfather's rescue mission, paints a personal picture of the Colonel as seen through the eyes of his grandchildren and documents their incredible journey of discovery which started in 2013.

'The Rescue a Live Film-Concerto' has been making waves all over the world. In Argentina they addressed children from the German School at Lanus who dressed up as Nazis to antagonize the ORT school in Buenos Aires at a sport meet earlier this year. They recently returned from Central and South America where they presented the Film-Concerto in Panama, Costa Rica, Chile and Argentina - giving Holocaust education presentations at schools in each country. Their film was selected to play at a special Holocaust Education Week performance in Toronto at the beautiful Grace Church on the Hill. Most notably in November of 2017 they presented THE RESCUE - A Live Film-Concerto in Hamburg and Berlin at the famous Topographie des Terrors Museum - on the former site of the Nazi SS and Gestapo headquarters. We are honored to be able to bring them to Beijing to share with our community at large this unbelievable story of courage and commitment to standing up to hatred and oppression.

The Rescue - A Live Film-Concerto is an innovative and engaging way to tell the story of their grandfather and the survivors he helped, combining the film with a live concert performance of its musical soundtrack by a six-piece chamber orchestra.

Each presentation of the film is unique and features Alvaro on bass, his brother Boris on piano directing four other local musicians from each city where they perform live. Besides being able to emotionally connect diverse audiences to this Holocaust story of rescue through music, the Film-Concerto has had the effect of bringing together diverse audiences and artists in the cities where the film has been shown. A performance in China will be an important cross-cultural event between Chinese and Canadian artists in solidarity with the dual Jewish causes to never forget the Holocaust and its horrors and to honour the actions of the few Righteous among the Nations who risked their lives to save Jews.